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the resolutions are still painfully closed at six and everyone knew fresh. As fresh as the spines on the how to dance the Pride of Erin. Tim Reading stack of Picadors. Remember how has been forced to dip into The you were really going to come to Single Man's Guide to Picking up between the grips with Foucault this year, to get Girls after a number of notable on top of the tariff debate, put be­ failures this year to find a wife hind you those painful obfuscations despite presiding at a record number Party Lines required when the subject of post­ of country debutante balls. Tim’s modernism came up? Even to be failure is inexplicable to most ob­ able to crack a few witticisms about servers. Some have speculated that hillip Clark specu­ the latest Mary Wesley novel. it’s the Complete Train Spotters lates on the reading Guide protruding from his coat Good heavens, perhaps to have ac­ habits of the headline pocket that is putting some women tually read one to the end. haunters. off. Or perhaps his anecdotes about Relax, you aren’t alone. As the world how he rode on the footplate with As the sun gets hotter and the collapses around us, even those we the engineer of the 3801 isn’t the best sushine sharper the minds of most way to break the ice. of us may be turning to the summer only read about at breakfast are learning that a good book is as safe a holidays and what we’ll be doing at Ron Boswell, leader of the National place to hide as the Cook Islands the beach or the septic-scented Party in the Senate: Ron is a robust share register. holiday house. sort of bloke who knows how politics works. When he arrived in We may be contemplating these mat­ Using our special upside down read­ ing glasses and periscopic lapel the Senate he declared that he’d had ters stretched out in one of those to suck up to Joh to get there and Brazilian hammocks which we badge, we have managed to infiltrate the bookshelves of a number of what was wrong with that? Despite bought in an optimistic rush from a his high office, books are not Ron’s credit card gift catalogue months ago 1990’s headline inhabitants. The results are revealing. strongest suit. One is reminded of and for which we are alarmed to the joke about the boy who com­ discover that we are finally being Tim Fischer, federal leader of the plained about being given a book for billed. National Party: Hm is a politician of Christmas because he already had Lying beside the hammock is the the old school when a country vote one. Nevertheless Ron is thought to inevitable pile of unread books. Yes, was worth ten in the city, the pubs have made good progress on The Cat

ALR: DECEMBER 1990 HOLIDAY READING in the Hat by Dr Seuss this year. Wal Murray, NSW leader of the Na­ Unfortunately he lost his place in tional Party: Wal confessed recently Seven Little Australians early on on Sydney radio that he enjoyed The Best and was never able to find it again. thumbing through a Phantom comic from time to time, so his reading Nick Greiner, premier of NSW: Nick habits are no secret. The Nationals’ has been absolutely snowed under of behemoth is also a keen chef and in with Federal Budget Paper Number between scoffing down a few plate­ One for the past few months, espe­ fuls of his wife Dymphna’s classic Everything cially the bit about state tax sharing cheese crisps, the big fella is known grants, but he’s also had time for a to ponder the inner mysteries of 101 bit of fiction. The premier can point Ways with Beef, Pork, Lamb and to his briefcase copy of Fearless in Chicken. Green — an adventure story which tells of how Alan, a newly graduated Steve Cosser, Broadcom boss: since accountant, fights his way nearly to losing control of Channel Ten, Steve the top of a big state government has found himself with a lot of read­ Our thoroughly eclectic statutory authority by introducing ing time on his hands. He’s probably selection of guest some new bookkeeping practices made his way through all of fellow and reducing debt at the same time Broadcom director Max Walsh’s reviewers choose their as increasing efficiency. This is so economic articles but is none the favourite reads of 1990: exciting that Nick can only dip into wiser about where he went wrong. A it a bit at a time. And with wife dog-eared The Art o f the Deal by from Cervantes to Slaven, Kathryn pondering a life of her own, Donald Trump didn't help him from Kafka to Clyde including a TV home renovation much either. He’s had to settle back show, the premier has asked his top with Robert Roget’s Retribution to Cameron bureaucrats to prepare him some see if that gets him anywhere. briefing papers on such baffling texts as Frypan Surprises and Bob Hawke, prime minister: With Microwave Cooking for One. Bob’s prostrate in the condition it is he finds being stranded at the 11th Michael Yabsley, NSW Minister for tee and far from the clubhouse a Kangaroos Corrective Services: Yabba has had nightmare. Admittedly this is an im­ a tough year and reading hasn’t been provement on matters before the high on the agenda. In fact most operation when he was lucky to and nights Yabba has been curling up on make it down the first fairway before the couch watching his video copy that feeling started. The solution? of that film classic from the 20s, The Improve his game so that he can get Rin Tin Tin Cabinet of Dr Caligari for light around the course faster and nip that relaxation. Mr Yabsley is widely rusty nail sensation before it strikes. ere you a television- thought of as a tough guy. This is a The book? Tommy Armour’s ABC o f tube child? Do you, popular misunderstanding. In fact Golf. Mr Yabsley is a gentle, kind man like me, have an at­ who nurses injured birds back to John Hewson, federal opposition w tention span of less health and has a large library of leader: Dr Hewson is trying hard to than a mi lute? Are you already books on the subject. All right, this look like a prime minister but he’ll only half-reading this review as is an even more serious have to give away that former you begin to think of something misunderstanding. His shelves are swanky image. Earlier in the year he else? Well, do I have a book for actually stacked with original was understood to be engrossed in you! It’s called The Ultimate Ir­ treatises of Dr Josef Mengele. Well, such tomes as Fabulous Marques: they may be. We concede there is no the Life o f Enzo Ferrari, How To Get relevant Encyclopaedia and it's per­ firm evidence for this. More Punch out of your Porsche as fect for today’s “upwardly well as thumbing through back is­ im m obile” - those paralysed by In between pacing out the distance sues of Modern Motor magazine. the onslaught of so many bits of from the cells to the wire at Long Bay information they don’t know prison and considering whether he With his new responsibilities Dr what’s important any more. could get away with introducing a Hewson is now thought to have put policy of making prisoners sleep toe reading aside in favour of writing his In a world where, increasingly, the to toe to save space, Yabba has had autobiography, There’s a Track only difference between the lead a chance to peruse a few recreational Winding Back to an Old Fibro story on a news bulletin — “350 volumes. Top of the pile by his bed­ Shack. perish in industrial disaster” — and side this year are The Count of the cute one they have at the end — Monte Christo by Alexandre Dumas PHILLIP CLARK edits the ‘Stay in “Coming up, the French poodle that and Marcus Clarke’s For the Term o f Touch’ column for the Sydney Morning thinks it’s Elvis” — is the half-smile his Natural Life. Herald.

A IR : DECEMBER 1990 HOUDIY REAPING

ment of five cats in order to clear a forward post of rats”. Ulladulla Under Misunderstanding, a tale about Captain Cook seeing an odd creature bounding past and asking a Unmasked native what it was called. “The Aborigine replied ‘kangaroo’. Only some years later, after the name had stuck, did the good captain learn that ‘kangaroo’ in the local dialect meant ‘I don’t understand’.” And under Seaside: “If you do like to be beside the seaside, try Canada. It has the longest coastline of any country, six times that of Australia”. Face it, if you really must know something about this wide brown land of ours, you might as well know something irrelevant. That way, you Andrew Denton can know fuck-all, but still seem in­ formed! Believe me, that’s how most of the ‘smart money’ became smart. on a newsreader’s face, it’s comfort­ ing to know that somebody has final­ Heaven knows how the authors, ly published a book which treats William Hartston and Jill Dawson, “information” with the contempt it went about the awesome task of deserves. working out what was not important Paul Murphy enough to go into this encyclopaedia The Ultimate Irrelevant En­ but, obviously, they consider it cyclopaedia is a compendium of ap­ definitive as - according to the front parently useless facts cover - this is the “Fully Unrevised he last time I wrote in cross-referenced in such a way that, Edition”. The great thing is, though, this space was to when strung together, they begin to it doesn’t matter. praise the book Pants take on their own weird sig­ T Off by H.G. Nelson nificance. After all, is it any more important how they decided on their informa­ and Roy Slaven. I did more than For example: Being a jingoistic soul, tion than the fact that the elephant’s praise it; I pronounced it the I always judge a good encyclopaedia penis may be 5 feet long (Sleep, best book I’d ever read. by what it has to say about Australia. p.226) or that Rin Tin Tin died in the Well, I was wrong. There’s an even So, look up Australia on page 14 and arms of Jean Harlow (Acting, p.2)? better book available at all good you find that: “Mount Isa is the Of course, it isn’t. Anyone who bookstores now and it’s been written largest city area in the world, being thinks otherwise should immedi­ by the redoubtable Slaven. It’s called about the same size as Switzerland. ately go and watch a news bulletin But Switzerland can offer a taxi-ser- or read today’s newspaper then This is the South Coast and I’m Paul Murphy volume 2, a collection of vice by hang-glider which Mount Isa come back and tell me what was in Slaven’s hilarious news bulletins has yet to inaugurate”. it. If all you can remember is the which can be heard every Saturday newsreader’s name or the syndi­ Fair enough, but check the cross-ref- afternoon at 5 o’clock on Triple Jay’s cated cartoon, then this is your book. erences which, for Australia, in­ This Sporting Life. clude: Barbados, Borneo, The Ultimate Irrelevant En­ It’s not widely known that almost all Misunderstanding and Seaside and cyclopaedia is essential reading for of this country’s past sporting and you start to see the true value of this people who’ve come to realise that entertainment greats once had the book... nothing is essential any more. It same idea, quite independently of could, in fact, be the most useless Under Barbados, a chat about the each other, to retire to the same and unimportant book of the latter eggs of Barbados flying fish which place. Changa Langlands, Barry Jar­ part of this century. I thoroughly leads on to the fact that “in Australia man, Ian Redpath, Denis Pittard, a folk remedy for boils is to cover the recommend it. Bobby Limb, Marcia Hines, Linda affected area with the wetted skin of The Ultimate Irrelevant En­ McGill, Leonard Teale, Ted Mulry, a boiled egg”. cyclopaedia. William Hartston and Billy Thorpe and Bruce Laird, just to Jill Dawson. Unwin. mention a few of them, are living Under Borneo, news that “during highly eventful lives in the beautiful the Borneo border war, the ANDREW DENTON hosts The Money or NSW South Coast town of Ulladulla Australian army dropped a detach­ the Gun on ABC TV. and, at the same time, transforming

ALR : DECEMBER 1990 HOLIDAY READING the area into the cultural and sport­ authority on the field often choose ing heart of Australia. to relax after hours in a frock, high heels and mascara rather than the Gloom Most of them have lived there for traditional tracksuit. And some of years, getting to know each other in the relationships, particularly the Busters a variety of places, like the imposing fiery liaison between Ashley Mallett Tunks Centre in town, or on picnics and Marcia Hines, leave so-so yams in the Keith Barnes Reserve or on the like Romeo and Juliet and Anna he recession of 1990 limpid waters of Lake Ray Price, or Karenina in the literary shade where has not been felt yet again in the majestic forests of Mick they belong. in the quality or quan­ Cronin National Park. T tity of Australian Slaven’s book is a winner! It’s a books being published. This will What these people get up to in Ul- raunchy and exciting read made change d ram atically in 1991. ladulla is excitingly reported by Roy even more delectable by the brilliant Slaven, the man who makes it his and daring illustrations of Bill Leak. Fewer books will be published business to know other people’s I can confidently say this is the best and fewer books sold in the next business. And the things they get up book I’ve ever read. As Roy said to 12 months. So these recommen­ me the other day, you won’t want to to! It’s not uncommon for young dations are really an urgent call put it down! Rugby League players to suffer bite from the front line for a halt to wounds to the buttocks requiring 60 Paul Murphy is presenter of not only the ‘short arm, long pocket’ or more stitches after the game. This is the South Coast News, but also crises. My top 10 Australian tit­ Quite a few big, boofy sporting PM, ABC radio’s current affairs pro­ les for this year are: giants renowned for their masculine gram, and Dateline for SBS TV. 1. Poppy. Drusilla Modjeska. A terrific meditation on Modjeska’s mother that peels back layers of a Clyde’s life. 2. The Selling of the Australian Style Mind. Stephen Knight. The author is to the Left what Geof­ or reasons that have frey Blainey is to the Right. Fascinat­ little to do with ing essays that sweep from the literary merit, the bourgeois dinner party to a defence of the humanities. book I most enjoyed during 1990 was The Cameron 3. Spidercup. Marion Halligan. Diaries. Great beach reading for the guilty: a tale of obsessive jealousy that will It affords a glimpse into the mind of find echoes, unfortunately, in both a quintessentially professional men and women. politician, a man to whom politics is life and life is politics. 4. Taking Shelter. Jessica Anderson. The time that has elapsed since This last novel from one of Clyde Cameron recorded these Jim McClelland Australia’s finest writers is an in­ momentous events tends to under­ triguing tale of a middle-class life line their essential triviality. The touched by AIDS and the youth cul­ book is a warning to readers to dis­ ture. count much of the hype which sur­ 5. The Quest for Grace. Manning rounds such events at the time they Clark. are happening. Like now. Volume Two in Clark’s autobiog­ I derived a lot of pleasure from a raphy brings us appreciably closer memoir of a very different kind, John to a sense of the historian’s origins. Updike’s Self Consciousness. He is a master of a literary art with a long 6. At Last! edited by Geoff Slattery. and honoured lineage, that of. A most important document for foot­ making the ordinary seem extraordi­ ball and a testimony to the dedica­ nary and vice versa. Distinguished tion of Collingwood supporters. precursors were Flaubert and Jane Austen. 7. Flying Lessons. Susan Johnson. Jim McClelland is a columnist for The This latest novel, by the author of Sydney Morning Herald. Messages from Chaos, Flying Les­

ALR ; DECEMBER 1990 K01ID IY , REAPING sons is a feat of the imagination that holds both a contemporary and his­ torical story in mind. The quest for Loyal a missing brother becomes the quest for a self and a family history. Grouser 8. Isobars. Janette Turner Hospital. A new collection of stories that again he book that cap­ proves the writer’s capacity for a tured my interest in truly cosmopolitan voice. the last month or so T was the biography of 9. The Very Best o f Friends. Margaret Wild, illustrated by Julie Vivas. the former British leader of the Independent Labour Party, Wonderful picture book for the James Maxton, by current under eights. I have successfully Labour Party frontbencher, achieved the horizontal a number of Gordon Brown. times with this one so it is terrific. I have to declare an interest first of 10. Glenda Adams. Longleg. all and indicate that I am a biography A wonderful novel that had me con­ junkie. Often looking for non-work firmed in my belief in the Oedipus reading material I turn to complex. The story of a boy’s quest biographies and, in particular, for his mother’s love with an unfor­ political biographies. Maxton gettable image of Mum’s twirling provides a fascinating study of dancing skirts that takes her further reform politics and the people and away from our hero’s longing. motivations which bring about reform, as well as the history of those LOUISE ADLER is the publisher for Louise Adler involved. Heinemann Books Australia. The interesting thing about reading this particular book is that it gives one a chance to learn about Maxton, perhaps a figure in British Labour history little known to members of the Australian Left; and simul­ Bali taneously about Gordon Brown. I was first attracted to the book be­ cause of its author, having met him High during a 1989 visit to the UK. I found him very impressive and I expect utodidacts are impose on friends for their enjoy­ him to be a key player, perhaps forever catching up ment and edification. As the only Secretary of State for Industry, in the and so this year’s feat middle-class Australian never to Kinnock Labour government after A has been the Smollet have been to Bali, I learnt a great the next British election. deal. This uninformed judgment translation of Don Quixote. was kindly confirmed by a friend The book is also an interesting read for political junkies of all per­ What surprised me was the Don be­ with the appropriate expertise. Vick­ suasions. As the fly leaf says: “James haves exactly the way I do, and I ers approaches his material in a way Maxton was Britain’s most charis­ suppose that everyone else does, in that left me confident that he could matic socialist politician of the inter­ order to get through the day; that is, see around corners. He presents the war period and the best known he imagines that everything is some­ history of Bali through the images of platform orator of his time. ” As Scot­ thing else. Apparently Marx taught its foreign describers without show­ tish MP for Bridgeton in Glasgow himself to read Spanish by reading ing how smart he is by making his from 1922 until his death in 1946 he his way through the Don, but then prose dreary. A book for anyone who never ceased to speak out against he already had Latin and French, to has been, is going or refuses to visit privilege, inequality, poverty and, in mention only the most related ones. the place. An ideal summer time particular, unemployment. Yet even historians have to come out present. But you may have to order As with all political biographies it is from under their moss-covered it since booksellers are reluctant to interesting to see the connections stones and sample the current at­ stock a volume that is better than a between life experience and politi­ mosphere. Of the new books I en­ travel guide. cal attitudes and practice, both as a joyed in 1990, Adrian Vickers’ Bali HUMPHREY McQUEEN is a Canberra- matter of philosophy and as a matter (Penguin) is at the top of my list to based historian and writer. of style. There are also some points

ALR : DECEMBER 1990 HOLIDAY READING of contemporary interest. One worth The other interesting fact, of course, Australian Labor movement are noting for itself and as it relates to is that perhaps many of you, like I, prepared to give to their opponents previous events in Australian Labor thought that this was a Gough Whit- in contemporary analysis. The book history, is a quote from Aneurin lam original. Or at least I thought it also provides an interesting insight Bevan to Jennie Lee, another ILP MP. was a Graham Freudenberg original. into other better known characters He said: But then again I should have known such as Attlee, Bevan and, of course, what a great student of labour his­ I tell you what the epitaph of you MacDonald. tory Freudenberg is. Scottish dissenters will be - pure As an aid to analysis of British but impotent. Yes, you’ll be pure It is also interesting to note in such politics in the 20s and 30s, and alright but remember at the price a hard line political activist as Max- British social history of the time, of impotency you will not in­ ton, his judgment of Ramsay Mac­ Maxton is really worthwhile. fluence the course of British Donald. When all those in the politics by as much as a hair’s Labour movement were criticising An insight into the reform process, breadth. MacDonald for his treachery, when it merits reading and it also will give I have to say the study of the book he left the party to lead the National a return on your investment in time indicates that Bevan’s critique, at government, Maxton expressed the by shedding light on one of the least of the 1930s ILP proved to be view that accusations about leaders of the next British Labour correct. treachery were out of place. His government. More than that, if you view was that MacDonald shouldn’t are interested in politics and the But either way, it is an important be criticised for being true to his own political process, and if you like a statement about the nature of the beliefs. The misfortune was that slightly esoteric journey in that over­ political reform process with the MacDonald’s beliefs were unsound all arena, I think Maxton by Gordon trade-offs we all have to contemplate and his theory of society and social Brown, published by Mainstream and the hard decisions we are development unsound. Publishing, is well worth a look over prepared to make, in general and on Christmas. each specific occasion, when we are It is a more interesting analysis of the confronted with a political dilem­ motives of opponents within the Senator Bob McMullan is Parliamen­ ma. movement than most in the tary Secretary to the Treasurer.

A Hollow Faith

he famous little guy of caught staging a reading of Macbeth boilers stoked at various times by 21 Czech literature, the in her living room that she name the signatories of Charter 77. play’s subversive author. Good Soldier Svejk, In his collection of essays, A Cup of T once remarked of a Wide-eyed Prague schoolchildren Coffee with My Interrogator, Ludvik prison sentence: “I never im­ were herded into the police museum Vaculik recalls once telling his inter­ agined they’d sentence an in­ to gaze on its most infamous exhibit, rogators how Charter signatories nocent man to ten a stuffed border Alsatian dog, a were treated; how people were dis­ years...sentencing an innocent canine hero for apprehending the missed from their jobs, had driving man to five years, that’s some­ largest number of escaping dissi­ licences taken away from them, dents. “Open a page of Canine telephones disconnected, lives thing I’ve heard of, but ten, News", wrote Ivan Klima in one of made miserable. They looked at that’s a bit m uch.” his short stories, “and there on the him, the typist included, as if hear­ A vein of satire runs through much very first page you come across yet ing something incredible. “I sur­ Czech writing, all the more remark­ another wretched article about rendered to my impression that I able when the real world beyond the someone else’s glorious revolution.” was talking to people who were writer's imagination is offering daily working on so distant a site that they A philosopher of Klima’s student examples of unconscious satire did not even know what their factory days once considered the great hope richer than anything the most gifted was producing.” It is no coincidence of Czech philosophy worked as a writer could dream up, as it did with that Kafka was bom in Prague. Every night watchman in the Institute of a vengeance in postwar Czechos­ year on the anniversary of Jan lovakia. Philosophy. “How about that for an Palach’s self-immolation in protest example of a special kind of absur­ against the Soviet invasion of 1968, Pinnacles of absurdity were reached dity?” Another philosopher dug tun­ people light candles at his graveside, during those bitter 40 years. Heights nels for the metro; a literary critic but Palach is no longer there. To of lunacy transcended. Interrogators washed windows; the Prague Hotel extinguish his memory the regime demanded of the Czech actress had the distinction of having its had his body removed to a country

ALR : DECEMBER 1990 HOLIDAY REAPING

graveyard, replacing it with that of a the tragedy of Czechoslovakia’s “The more dignified and humane an young woman, and the mourners moral desolation and decay better image of man was drawn by the mourn at the tomb of Maria Jedlick- told than in the book this piece is Party, the less did men themselves ova. ostensibly all about. My choice for come to mean in society. The better My Favourite is the unforgettable and more joyous our lives appeared With the tables now turned, more absurdity has been heaped on memoir of a Czech woman who has in the pages of newspapers, the sad­ der they were in reality.” awesome tragedy. On the occasion known more suffering than most. Heda Margolius Kovaly survived a 1 of the publication of his new novel, It was a reality her husband could Nazi concentration camp to become Love and Garbage, Ivan Klima wor- never grasp. He could not give up his a victim of stalinism. After the war 1 ried about the turnaround; “People conviction that his ideal was essen­ her husband put all his faith in a who formerly shunned dissidents tially sound and good. Nor could he are so kind to us I nearly hate it”. A communist ideal. He was a member explain why it had failed, even then, dissident rock star is now MP for of the government post-1948. In as early as 1951. She knew why: “If central Prague; the Foreign Minister 1951, his faith shown to be hollow, the system could only function once stoked boilers; half the cabinet he was executed with ten others, all when the leadership is made up of cleaned windows. Writer Jiri Wolf of them Jews, following the in­ geniuses and all the people are one got six years in jail for writing a letter famous Slansky show trial of that hundred percent honest and infal­ to the Austrian Embassy about year. All have since been lible, then it’s a bad system. It might _. prison conditions; Vaclav Havel “rehabilitated”. work in heaven but it’s a foolish and served more than four. Now Presi- Prague Farewell is a warning about destructive illusion for this world.” t dent, Havel has abandoned the the dark side of human neture, a khaki of the palace guard, decking it record of how the totalitarian state Prague Farewell by Heda Margolius in sparkling new red and blue feeds on the blindness and weakness Kovaly, published in 1988 by Victor - uniforms designed by the costume of human beings, and turns on the Gollancz Ltd. Other books men­ designer for the film Amadeus. The people, ridiculing the ideals of the tioned: A Cup o f Coffee with My Soviet general who commanded the true believers. Kovaly writes of ab­ Interrogator by Ludvik Vaculik, pub­ lished by Readers International invading tanks in 68 has visited surdities as well; of the nouveau- 1986; short Prague to apologise to Alexander riche snobbery among people My Merry Mornings, stories by Ivan Klima, published by Dubcek, and been told he was 22 parading their working class origins Readers International 1985; Love *■ years too late. and proletarian principles, who rule and Garbage by Ivan Klima, pub­ in the name of workers and farmers; Without doubt, this is theatre of the lished by Chatto and Windus 1990. absurd. For the people forced to live of tables groaning under the weight their lives on such a stage, however, of rare delicacies while the people YVONNE PRESTON is a senior jour­ the 40 lost years have been a tragedy live on rations; of ideological bab­ nalist with The Sydney Morning of epic proportions and nowhere is ble, lies, cruelties and deceptions. Herald.

Demystifying

o o king Beyond weapons and the “Escalation usual comments by strategic Yesterday is a superb Dominance policy” of which they analysts. are the structural core. anthology of John McLaren, for example, notes L Australian writers, The pervasive power of this threat is that “while the language of nuclear cartoonists and activists, who demonstrated in the quoted story by technology conceals the truth muse about the threat of Tilley Olsen in which the narrator’s beneath euphemism, the words of nuclear war and how their daughter, when asked about her the cold war warriors become talents may be used to prevent exams, dismisses them from serious weapons which destroy the pos­ such cataclysm. consideration saying that "in a sibility of reasoned agreement”. couple of years when we’ll be atom- Looking Beyond Yesterday is also an dead they won’t matter a bit”. Dorothy Green notes an appalling assault on the governments, media report by a committee of scholars at barons and the rich and powerful Several contributors — among them Harvard in 1983 who said that who seem to be saying, as the editor John McLaren, Dorothy Green and nuclear weapons were part of the David Headon notes, “Hands off the David Martin — carefully and order of things and commented that big issues”. The biggest issue with rigorously describe the facts about “living with nuclear weapons is our which the book deals is the threat the nuclear threat, and using their only hope and there is no greater test posed by the existence of nuclear skills as writers, go further than the of the human spirit”. As she says,

ALR: DECEMBER 1990 » HOLIDAY READING

"any sane person in answer to the fairs reporting. Rodney Hall out­ humanity, and to the natural world question ‘our only hope of what?’ lines the possible significance of by which and through which we would reply at once, ‘of that in his description of the plot of live...and it goes not only to our damnation’”. Kisses o f the Enemy. David Headon potential readers, but to those who is right to emphasise the critical role for one reason or another are fringe- Since this book was written the cold of the artist in truth-finding and dwellers, ignored, oppressed, out of war has ended and we are being truth-telling in this world in which touch or out of sight”. offered opportunities which have the mass media are in the hands of a not been available to humankind for small group of entrepreneurial rob­ There is much fascinating discus­ nearly a century. The 20th century ber barons. We can share Gore sion of the process of writing — by has been the century of war, not only Vidal’s foreboding that we are not Rodney Hall, Amanda Lohrey and the First and Second World Wars, threatened so much by Big Brother Martha Ansara, for example. It is a but an endless array of regional wars watching us by his choice, as by us pleasure to read writers demystify­ including the Vietnam War, and for watching him, by ours. ing their work: I often wish that the last 50 years the massively was­ economists would more frankly teful military spending associated Another theme which goes to the demystify their because that would with the Cold War. Yet the pos­ heart of the malaise within the show the shallowness of much of it. sibility of a period without war now Australian body politic is the rise of David Headon and Amanda Lohrey exists — provided Bush and Hussein the “new breed of economist rightly emphasise the potency of can be restrained. The conflict over politicians”. Most Australian humour. Mockery is the most Kuwait illustrates the fragility of the government policy during the last powerful political weapon but many peace for which we were all hoping decade has originated in the minds forms of writing are available simply at the beginning of this year. That of the waspish males in the Treasury telling stories effectively is perhaps conflict could yet be the occasion on and the Prime Minister’s Depart­ the most compelling. Bruce Dawe which nuclear weapons are used ment and the like whose basis for notes the poet’s power through using action is an ideology of perfect again if, for example, Iraq uses images as paradigms. A striking ex­ markets. This ideology is naive be­ chemical weapons against Israel and ample is Ian Matthews’ phrase from cause all markets fail and therefore Israel retaliates with its own nuclear Beowulf on the ‘peace weavers' to to rely on them for either efficiency bombs. describe the poets and cartoonists or equity, let alone humanity, is who pick up the strands which often I doubt if Australia’s most effective foolish utopianism. Perhaps the run in opposing directions. contribution to ending the nuclear community will recognise the in­ threat is armed neutrality as sug­ adequacy of their prescriptions and An appealing vision for the future gested by David Martin for that is a of their deregulatory and privatising recipe for increased military expen­ comes from the ecologists. Alan policies as a result of the massive Runciman writes of the goal of “a diture here and competitive rearma­ corporate failures, and of the cor­ ment elsewhere. Rather, cannot we just, compassionate and sustainable porate exploitation of market power future”. In an unexpected chapter concentrate on co-operative, col­ which has led to the explosive by Colin Campbell and David Mac­ laborative arms reductions by, for growth of directors’ and executives’ example, establishing a conference millan the life sciences are assigned incomes. on security and co-operation in East the role of bringing a new vision of Asia through which confidence Many other themes are picked up by the world as alive, with functions building measures could be the contributors: the dehumanising inter-related as “its care and nurture negotiated, leading on in due course impact of mechanisation; the sense a matter of sustaining life”. They to multilateral disarmament in this of powerlessness which is advocate accelerating the movement region in the same way as it is now widespread within the politically “from economics to ecology as the happening in Europe. alienated community; and the op­ governing science of our era”. pression of women, minorities and The nuclear threat is far from being the poor. Patrick White reminds us that part the only issue effectively addressed of the required vision for the future It is not, though, the identification of in Looking Beyond Yesterday. A is simply to recognise that, in a number of writers comment on the these issues which is inspirational; quotation from Robert Gray: superficiality of the popular press it is the way in which the writers and the link between that and the wrestle with how to bring together ...all that’s important is the ordi­ concentration of media ownership. their political convictions and their nary things. The fact that 70% of our artistic integrity. Amanda Lohrey Making the fire notes that “politically informed fic­ metropolitan newspapers are con­ To boil some bathwater, pound­ tion has had a bad press in literary trolled by one company, dominated ing rice, pulling the weeds circles. It is assumed to be the fellow by one foreigner, is perhaps the And knocking dirt out of their major failure of Australian traveller of ‘dun-coloured realism’, roots, or pouring tea. democracy. This degree of con­ not really art but propaganda...” centration of media ownership is Most contributors agree with Judith JOHN LANGMORE is the member for unprecedented in any liberal Wright that “art is not propaganda” Fraser (ALP, ACT) and convenor of the democracy at any time yet it is the and that the responsibility of the ALP caucus committee on funding of most notable non-story in public af­ writer “goes deep into the centre of government business enterprises.

ALR : DECEMBER 1990